Prison Sentences for Abusive Mortgage Practices

Economist Paul Krugman wrote a New York Times column in which he says, “Ever since the current economic crisis began, it has seemed that five words sum up the central principles of United States financial policy: Go easy on the bankers.”

Krugman went on, “As federal officials press state attorneys general to accept a very modest settlement from banks that engaged in abusive mortgage practices.”

If the practices were illegal, as surely some were, possibly involving fraud, shouldn’t some of these people responsible for families losing their homes and having their lives disrupted, subjecting perhaps tens of thousands of people to despair and a significant period of misery and hopelessness, receive prison sentences?